016: A Grand Final Find

Yesterday was Grand Final Day - and for everyone in Melbourne, that means getting your crazy on and watch the footy. I however, are one of those rare individuals who are unable to sit through an entire match on television (I can watch if I'm in the stands, but at home, eh) So my memories of Grand Final Day are always a little different to others - one involved my dad hooking up a projection screen so we the game full screen off the living room wall, I sat behind the couch with a copy of Harry Potter and stayed there long after the final song was sung.

This year, we went to my grandparents - and fifteen minutes in was frustrated at myself for not thinking to bring a book and using up all my lives in Candy Crush too quickly. My sister was getting twitchy as well, and we decided to sneak off for a walk.

My grandparents live in the same house my father was born in - a little farm land once in the middle of nowhere but slowly consumed by the suburbs.A lot of the land was sold off, but there is still plenty for a good explore, including several run-down sheds.

Sister and I potted through the first few, where bits of old cars were still kept and the old machinery. We had to clamber over several spare tractors and broken pipes. There was a window sill of dusty mason jars, filled with old screws and receipt books from when the farm was still running.

When we were almost ready to make it back to the house, we took the long way back - a found another way into the sheering shed. It involved crawling in through a wonky hole in the wall. Through all the dust and cobwebs - it was absolutely worth it.

Inside was a treasure trove. Old, beautiful and wondrous. It was like stepping into someone else's memories. Bits of furniture from every decade, spare parts for cars that were no longer being made and old toys that had been put away and forgotten.

I love these beautiful discoveries - to think that I have been coming to this house for over two decades, walking past this shed for my entire life, and hidden behind the walls peeling with paint were all these treasures just waiting for someone to love them again.

  Kathleen x

015: Where the Wild Things Are

There is a nature reserve behind my house, which previously been only know due to the stream that my housemates have named body drop creek. I'm sure I don't need to explain how that name came about, but safe to say that we had always given the reserve a wide berth. But recently my very brave housemate decided to go for a run in the sunshine.

And actually went in.

I waited by the door expecting to have the police drag her body back out for me, but they didn't and she came back in one piece. And from her life threatening expedition, she bought back tales of this wondrous place. 

Long stretches of elegant silver gums, a wild life reserve and although I think she was pulling my leg, a fully stocked farm. There was only one way to make sure she wasn't lying. And that was to check it out for myself. 

Braced with a rape whistle and a small illegal can of pepper spray, I made my way out.

And lo and behold, my housemate was not lying.  

In the midst of our outer city suburb, we have over an hundred and fifty hectare park on our door step. And we had never been there before. I walked for over an hour and didn’t see a single of the sighs my housemate had flagged – but I did find a glum looking pair of sheep chilling between the gum trees.

I love finding places like this. I didn’t grow up in the city, but I too quickly adjusted to the noise of streaming traffic, tram rattling past and the constant reminder that you are never alone. But today, just by getting out there in the trees, I was able to forget about the rest of the world for just a second and have some time to myself. Prue, undisrupted bliss.  

  Kathleen x

014: Poor Man's Gourmet

As I am a uni student, it is quite regular in my household for us to run out of food and there is at least one night a week when we are scrounging together the scraps in the back of the cupboard to make an excuse for a meal. (One memorable night I had peas and tomato sauce for dinner – yes, that was a low point in my life) and last night threatened to follow along the same course. All I had was a bag of dried lentils and half a pumpkin, but inspired by the recipe on the back of the lentil packet, this creation was born.

Pumpkin and Lentil Burger in a pancake bun (that idea was acquired from an amazing vegan restaurant near my house) with roast pumpkin chips and yoghurt sauce. Here's how I got there.

11/2 cups of cooked lentil (green, red, brown or a combination of all three) 

1/2 a medium butter-nut pumpkin 

1 cup of chickpeas, slightly crushed

Clove of Garlic 

1/2 an onion, chopped finely

1. Brown onion and garlic in a little splash of olive oil 

2. Mix lentils, pumpkin and chickpeas together with onion garlic mix. 

You are going for a nice thick consistency that holds together on its own. If necessary, add some flour (or chickpea flour for a vegan alternative) 

3. Cook. I shallow fried mine, but I find shallow frying difficult to manage, so I guess a deep fryer would work better (although not better for you) They can also be baked. 

The pancake mix I used was a very simple savoury pancake mix, but for a vegan/ gluten free alternative, I've found this recipe to work wonderfully;

1 cup of rice flour (or gluten free flour)

pinch of salt

1 1/2 soy milk 

1/8 vegetable oil 

And make like any other pancake. 

For finishing touches, I mixed a little diced cucumber and Greek yoghurt, and roasted the rest of the pumpkin with paprika and sea salt and enjoyed a feast fit for a king.   

  Kathleen x

013: Things I don't Know

I recently turned 21. Woo! So midst the celebration, I, being the awfully pensive individual that I am, got to thinking. Supposably, I am an adult now, fully fledged in every sense of the term, but it still scares me when people, often younger kids, classify me as ‘a grown up’. Banished from the kids table and forced into small talk and appetizers, I don’t think I’m ready for all this scary shit yet.

In my mind, grown ups were the ones who knew everything and were capable of great things. But I still call my mum if the washing machine is making strange noises. And as much as I would like to think that I am a not dumb person, there are something’s that no matter how many times I try, I have just not learnt them yet.

10 Things I Know But Have Not Learnt

1.       The cheapest wine on the shelf is never good wine

2.       $8 shoes are never going to last

3.       It’s never just ‘one more episode’

4.       Mixing wine and vodka is not a good idea

5.       The bins go out on Thursdays

6. If he's not calling, he's no interested.

7. Your hair is never going to look like it did at the hairdressers

8.       Coffee is no substitute for breakfast

9.       No-one looks good while running

10.    Life will not begin until you are not waiting for it.

  Kathleen x 

012: A Decidedly Good Week

Last Monday, I woke up a mess. I had overslept my morning class and a job interview and hair to rival Hermione Granger. I was running late and forgot to mention some crucial experience in the interview and nearly rammed into another car. All in all, it was a pretty shitty morning. And unfortunately, my week followed much the same course. 

Every day I was running late for something, an class presentation on Tuesday, (which literally involved running up five flights of stairs) dinner with my parents and working the late night shift everyday and getting suck in traffic all over the place. And to add to the stress, I had three assignments due by the end of the week and I had forgotten all about them until a few days before the due date. Sleeping and eating became optional extras. 

Safe to say, my week wasn't exactly perfect. 

On the Sunday night, as I drove home from work (it hadn't been a good shift, running late, got a couple of orders wrong and had been teetering on tears since my vacuum had exploded that morning) I decided that my bad week was over. And I was going to have a better week. 

Just with that slight change in attitude, things started to go better. With my assignments in and  a designated 'reading week' (AKA quarter semester break just for my class) and significantly less shifts the world around me freed up and I did it. I had a brilliant night sleep, read a couple of riveting novels and caught up with friends I hadn't seen in a while. I had another job interview, which went brilliantly - sat down and spoke for over an hour about working in hospitality and had the job offered to me on the spot. Had my involuntary life experiences for the week  and finally moved the furniture back into my flat. 

Sunday Morning - the results of a good week in my opinion 

And just to top the week off - had one of my bestest friends 21st - although I did spend some time holding back someone's hair, it wasn't my own, so I can always count that as a bonus.

I find it so surprising how much you are able to change purely by deciding that everything is going to be ok. What happened wasn't so different from the previous week, actually think more bad things happened, but the control I have over my mood and the power of positive thinking really can make an amazing difference to everything that happens. 

Now all that needs to happen is to keep this frame of mind, make it a constant things and everything should be swell. 

011: Involuntary Life Experience

A few weeks ago I posted a list of "things" I wish to accomplish. Some of them important, most of them not and other just for a bit fun. One of them however, I added on because I thought it might be time I learnt a "life-lesson" - number 68: learn how to change a tire.

I put one on with the expectation that one weekend, I would go and visit my dad and he would take me through, step by step the process of changing a tire so that when the time came, I would be able to do it all by myself. However, life being what it is, that didn't happen.

Yesterday, for the first time in my short driving life, I got a flat, driving home from a job interview, a nail decided to lodge itself into my tire. And me, being me, decided it would be cool to drive on it til I got home. Apparently that's not what you do.

So, with the help of youtube videos, stressful calls to my dad and everyone else that I thought might be helpful, somehow, the tire has been changed. There is a good change I might be reduced to a bicylce and public transport by the the end of the week, but so far, I am will to say that I can change a tire.

Just look at me go!